The Blue Jays announced that right-hander Jacob Barnes has been designated for assignment (hat tip to Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith). The move creates roster space so Joakim Soria could be reinstated from the COVID-related injury list, a necessary procedural transaction before Soria hits the free agent market.
Toronto acquired Barnes from the Mets in June, as the Blue Jays were eager to find reinforcements for their struggling bullpen. Barnes didn’t provide many answers, as he posted a 6.30 ERA over only 10 innings with the Jays before being DFA’ed in July and then outrighted off the 40-man roster in August.
While Barnes did have a 30.6% strikeout rate during his brief time with the Jays, he didn’t help his cause by posting a 12.2% walk rate — a reawakening of the control problems that have occasionally hampered Barnes at both the major and minor league levels over the last few years, though his career walk numbers are respectable. Barnes did only allow one homer in a Blue Jays uniform, after surrendering six home runs over just 18 2/3 frames with the Mets earlier this season.
After posting some solid numbers out of the Brewers’ bullpen from 2016-18, Barnes has since posted a 6.58 ERA over 79 1/3 innings for five different teams over the last three seasons. As per Statcast, Barnes has continued to post solidly above-average fastball spin rates throughout his career, but while his four-seam fastball continues to get positive results, he hasn’t had much success with secondary offerings.
Barnes is eligible for arbitration this winter, projected for a $1.2MM salary. The DFA essentially looks like an early non-tender for the Jays, and since Barnes has over three years of MLB service time and has already been outrighted once this season, he can opt for free agency now rather than accept another outright assignment.
The Jays need to spend on SP and an Impact bat. Top RL like Hand and Yates didn’t pan out. RL are pretty unpredictable. I’ll say focus in retaining Semien and Ray, then go out and sign some 2nd tiers RL like Soria and others. Romano should be the Jays CL job to lose next year.
Marcus Semien will be a Seattle Mariner by the end of this offseason. Hope you enjoyed him while you had him.
Seattle ownership group is not giving out that kind of contract. They still want to sale the team. Which is why they traded away all the high dollar players away.
Except that ownership has publicly approved Dipoto to “spend significantly this offseason.” Last time I checked Seattle had a couple of glaring holes on the infield and roughly only $30M on the books. We’ve spent up to $150M in years past. Dipoto has said publicly that “offense will be a priority.” If I’m Jerry, Marcus Semien is target #1.
This offseason is going to be one of the most intriguing Seattle has had in a long long time!
I see a downturn for the M’s next season, but they will eventually be a very competitive team for sure as they have tons of young talent. M’s we’re exceptionally lucky in one run games, bullpen is now overexposed won’t be as good next year, rotation is so so, won’t surprise anyone next year. Seems like M’s will spend but Astros will still be pretty good, angels will spend, rangers will get a little better and you can bet your ass the A’s are going to do everything they can to not lose 12 in a row to them next year. I really like the M’s, hope they do well, we’ll see what they do in free agency hopefully I’m wrong.
We did, but he’s yours.
I don’t disagree that the Jays biggest needs will be SP and 2B/3B but you can’t just say they should basically ignore the bullpen because in the past, bullpen signings didn’t work out. You still have to address it with some impact arms so you are scrambling to try to fix it in June again.
A deep rotation creates a good bullpen. All those bullpen days early in 2021 were a big part of why the bullpen seemed so bad.
A deep rotation also allows you to transition guys like Hatch (or like Romano used to be, AAA starters) into full time relievers.
Are you using RL as an abbreviation for relief pitcher? Is that a thing?
My ideal line up and rotation for the Jays given their payroll flexibility is:
1.Springer CF
2.Semien 2B
3.Vladimir Jr. 1B
4.Bichette SS
5.Ramirez 3B
6.Teoscar DH
7.Lourdes Jr. LF
8.Jansen/Moreno/Kirk/McGuire C
9.Grichuk RF
1.Kershaw
2.Ryu
3.Berrios
4.Ray
5.Manoah
Yes, The Jays stoled Ryu from LA, why not do Kershaw as well if he becomes a FA.
Also, Biggio can be part of a deal for Cleveland’s J-Ram. I doubt they say no. I would also give them one of our C given the surplus on the deal. No Moreno, Pearson or Martinez however.
To4
You want to bump the payroll to +- 195 million before extending Berrios/Hernandez/Bo/Vlad? Not realistic or prudent.
Current Payroll estimated to be 110M
Semien- 25m
Ray- 20m ( Min likely more )
Kershaw- 25-30m
Ramirez- 11m
That is 81m + 110m= 191m
Hasn’t addressed the bullpen and left little room to extend anyone in the next 3-5 years.
After the next 2 seasons Grich’s 10.3 Mil and Ryu’s 20 Mil are gone, take Kershaw out of the equation and everything changes, if Berrios is extended it happens before the start of the season. As it stands right now in 2024 the only contract on the books is Springer @ 24 Mil
Yeah those ideas cost too much. Kershaw isn’t worth that kind of money and would push the payroll too much with so many young players hitting arbitration and needing to be extended in the next few years.
If Matz accepts a QO, you re-sign Semien, sign Chafin and another mid range BP arm (Bradley?) plus trade for Ramirez AND Alcantra… holy hell. That would put them likely around $175M for payroll… but would essentially empty the farm. Would have Matz’s $18M off the books next year and Ryu/Grichuk’s $30M off the year after. Use this $50M to pay for arb raises and extend Berrios/Teoscar. Likely ride Bichette/Vlad/Manoah through arbitration.
Luxury tax likely goes up with the next CBA. If not… extend Vlad and Bo after their second or third arb year and blow past the lux tax line for a couple years until Springers/Semien’s new deal is up.
Yeah, Jays should save money for sure. Get creative with trades for guys under control, under team friendly deals at least. Grichuk and Ryu are coming off the books in two years, which should help payroll flexibility a bit moving forward.
Grichuck’s gotta go he’s a black hole, although they’d get nothing for him. don’t see Kershaw coming, pretty injury prone would rather see them go for some guys who are a little younger Rodon? Eduardo Rodriguez?a Kirk trade involving Sandy Alcantara from Miami?Would love to see Ramirez but not sure that’s realistic maybe they could pry Moncada away from White Sox? They’d have to give up something for him though, not even sure if they’re looking to do that? Grossman or someone who battles and sees a lot of pitches would be a good replacement for Grichuck.
I’d rather see them trade for Marte from the Diamondbacks then Ramirez, can cover CF if Springer spends time on the IL.
Trade for a young pitcher and sign one of the 2nd tier guys such as Rodon .
( In a dream world both of the Marte guys and then use Gurriel or Hernandez as trade bait to get that young starting pitcher. )
We need a ton of depth for the pen.
1- Sign Starling Marte – 2-3 yrs at an AAV higher then other offers.
2- Sign a guy like Rodon – 2-3 Yrs
3- Biggio/Groshans for Ketel Marte.
4- Trade one of Gurriel/Hernandez+ Kirk for a young pitcher .
5- Sign or trade for 3-4 relievers with significant upside.
Other then extending Berrios I don’t think at this point we should be taking on any further 5-6 yr contracts at least until next off season when Grich/Ryu are in their last years.
Im not totally against alot of the suggestions.
I only have an issue with 1 i dont see #3 happening. For the reason of the management see Groshans as the future 3rd baseman so much so that they gave Minnesota young “Superstar” Martins. If they include Groshan in a seperate trade they are officially depleting their 3rd base future.
I think Martinez has passed Groshans now as the 3B of the future.
Shatner
Would love Sandy Alcantara but Miami will likely want Moreno ++ for him , Kirk alone does not come close . Alcantara has a ton of surplus value with the years of control remaining.
I like Grichuk as a 4th outfielder. He can play solid defense at all three outfield positions, hit you a pinch home run, and be serviceable as a regular when there’s an injury.
Kershaw is not a #1 anymore. Hasn’t pitched 200 innings in 5 years. He is still a quality pitcher but he is an injury waiting to happen. Waste of $30+ million. Coming to the Jays is never going to happen.
Ray is not likely staying either. Someone is going to open the vault for him and Shapiro won’t do that for Ray like the MLB marketplace will. The Jays RYu contract is turning into a blackhole for the Jays. His era, whip and most of his other performance indicators are badly increasing and he can’t pitch an entire season anymore.
You are correct that the Jays need two starting pitchers, one top of the rotation. They needed the same last spring too and was said in these pages and not doing it then cost the team the playoffs.
Even though he burned bridges in TO, Stroman would be a good signing. I would take a flyer on Alex Cobb and Verlander too. If big money is being spent Scherzer is the way to go, but he wants California.
And please no morons say the Jays should sign James Paxton. He was done years ago.
Never sign an expensive 34 year old coming off the worst season of his career with injury issues. Kershaw would be a huge risk, for a lot more money than Ryu. I mean, if you somehow get him on a Ryu-sized deal then sure but that’s not happening.
Thought and prayers for a A+ on his assignment. I’m sure he’ll do great
Such an odd transaction in that they had to DFA him to reinstate a pending FA after their season has ended.
No harm no foul since he was apparently going to be non-tendered anyways (unless he accepts the outright assignment I guess, but that would be his choice…), but it’s crazy how some of these roster quirks result in weird things like this that change people’s lives.
Not really that odd. Every player on the IL has to be reinstated to the 40 in the off-season even if they are going to be free agents or released.
I see Semien going to Cards, Giants, or Mariners. 4years/$110M
4 years will not get it done, even with your proposed aav
If Eppler was still our GM Barnes would be on a plane here already.
Now that Barnes is a free agent, he’ll have more time to help Noble at the bookstore.
Barnes is an NPB candidate